An issue of the Polish-language "Glos znad Niemna" weekly printed in Poland has recently begun to be distributed among the Polish minority in Belarus, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported on 14 July. In a bid to put the Union of Poland in Belarus (SPB) under tighter control, the Belarusian authorities annulled the election of a new SPB leadership, prevented the SPB from printing "Glos znad Niemna" in Belarus, and issued several bogus issues of the weekly.
Several Polish-minority journalists were fined earlier this month over their protest against the takeover of "Glos znad Niemna" by the authorities. "I think the special operation [of the authorities] to publish the fake 'Glos znad Niemna' has ended in a fiasco," Polish-minority journalist Andrzej Poczobut told RFE/RL. Poczobut added that people in Poland have set up a fund to collect money to help Polish-minority journalists in Belarus pay their fines and publish "Glos znad Niemna" outside official control.